


Welcome To Forever

by ScoutThePlum



Series: Immortals [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Basically major usage of multiple AU's, F/F, F/M, GTA AU, Immortals AU, M/M, Magic AU, Maybe - Freeform, Minor Violence, Probably going to show up eventually, Swearing, characters will show up in like chapter 4, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 05:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4088947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScoutThePlum/pseuds/ScoutThePlum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fake AH Crew had been known to raise hell, but they were always careful about it. They never got too badly hurt, because they couldn't leave each other with the pain of loss. But accidents happen sometimes, and when they find they can't die.. They truly become unstoppable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Differences

**Author's Note:**

> This hopefully will be updated frequently, as this AU is literally my child and I love it dearly. As of now, there is no relationships, but who knows what will come later. Also yes, Magic AU will come into play sooner or later. I have big plans.

The discovery of immortality was still lingering in the air when they decided to begin raising chaos amongst the city. They started as big as they pleased, heisting banks and stores alike, and didn’t stop for days, until their greed was satisfied. They were living it big. Shopping sprees at all the most expensive stores Los Santos could provide, and when they were through, they stole a private jet and traveled wherever they pleased. Stops at exotic places, trying foods they’ve never even heard of. Making stops to take photos, because they didn’t know if this was just temporary or not. They wanted to live like kings from the very start, but none of them expected anything like this. They could literally do anything they wanted to and not have to worry about it in the slightest.

  
But, with power comes a god complex, which they all were beginning to gain. It started small, of course. Perhaps someone would mutter behind another’s back that they were better. Perhaps they all thought they were the superior immortal. It’s hard to say what really happened, but weren’t talking much anymore.

  
Michael was the first to leave. He took Gavin with him, claiming he and his boi would change the world, that they’d all see who really was the superior. It wasn’t long until Ryan grew paranoid over someone plotting against him, it wasn’t until he shot Jack through the heart that he realized he was becoming a monster, so he left without so much as saying goodbye. Jack tried desperately to keep Geoff, Ray, and himself to stay together, but in the end he was the one who couldn’t bear the stress any longer, and left with a note, saying if they really needed him, it would be clear soon where to find him. Geoff knew he and Ray wouldn’t be able to stick together for long, but to his surprise, they ended up staying together for a lot longer than he thought. He learned Ray was like taking care of a really lazy dog. Just feed him, don’t give him alcohol, and he’ll just play video games all day on the couch and make the occasional joke to which Geoff would laugh. Ray liked living with Geoff, mostly because the dude was an amazing cook, and Geoff was sort of like a dad to him. It was nice.

 

Michael and Gavin had been staying together, in a small house Michael had bought just outside of town. On the first night, Gavin woke Michael up with a scream, having a nightmare about falling out of that plane again. Michael comforted him to the best of his abilities, but the Brit was too frightened, because in his nightmare, he wasn’t immortal. He had always been scared of falling. Michael ended up cuddled up in bed with him, holding the frightened man against his chest, as the sounds of whatever silly movie they had on the television, until eventually Gavin fell asleep, and Michael did shortly after.

  
Ryan laid low, he kept himself away from the city. He stayed away from everywhere the crew was ever known for being. He lived lonely, and eventually the demons in his head got the best of him. He spoke to himself in inaudible mumbles and aggressive yells. He didn’t even bother leaving his hiding place unless he absolutely needed to. He was suffering greatly, but couldn’t possibly go for help.

  
Jack, unlike the rest of them, did something productive. He used most his money to build homes for the homeless. He made generous donations to charities he believed in, and made investments that would later benefit him probably. He was easily living the best out of everyone, and he was well aware of it. He wanted to make use of his wealth and use it for good, giving up his criminal title. He became the kind of person to leave a very generous tip along with a small note usually. The kind of person who was rare to find in Los Santos.

  
Geoff and Ray weren’t the most active, far from it actually. Geoff made in-home deals with other criminals, and rarely left the house anymore. He learned more about Ray than the previous very quiet man would tell a soul. Like he was being targeted by a large number of gangs, more than Geoff was. He also told Geoff about how that night when he discovered his immortality, he was actually hoping he would die, and had been contemplating it for a good while. But he wasn’t depressed, far from it. He just wanted to know what it would be like, in the end. He was curious what it felt like not to be hunted all the time. So Geoff never left much anymore, he wanted to keep an eye on Ray to make sure he was safe.

  
It was the middle of July, nearly six months since the initial break up, that Geoff and Ray realized they needed to get everyone back together. Something was wrong in the air, and deep down, they all knew it, and all of them were debating going back. But they all thought better of it, and stayed to themselves. All but Ray and Geoff, who decided ultimately they needed to get everyone together to figure it out. They missed each other.


	2. WAFFLE-O

They devised a plan. Geoff would handle Jack, quite honestly he was too scared of what Ryan may have become. Ray agreed to talk to Ryan, they were always close, anyways. They’d all talk to Michael and Gavin after everyone else was on board.

  
Geoff tracked down Jack quickly and easily, and had a friend call in scheduling a meeting for “home renovation” which Jack had lovingly taken up. Geoff walked into his office, where Jack’s eyes filled with confusion and a glimmer of terror upon seeing his old friend.

  
“Get out.” He tried to sound tough, but it was hard when he really didn’t want Geoff to leave.

  
“But what about the renovation?!” Geoff asked with sarcasm, a smile on his face. Jack visibly eased up.

  
“We both know you haven’t changed a thing about your apartment since we took over the building. What are you really here for, Geoff?”

  
“Something’s going on. It’s something in the air, a bad feeling, I don’t know what the hell it is but it’s there. And don’t say it’s just me, Ray felt it too.”

  
“I.. I thought... Nothing, it’s probably just something with-”

  
“The immortality? So you felt it too?”

  
“Yes but.. It doesn’t change anything.” Jack sat down now, but Geoff still stood, walking back and forth across the office floor.

  
“Jack, we need you to come back. We need all of you assholes to come back. Because if you felt it, and you’re out here, and we felt it, it’s not just us. It can’t just be us. Something going’s on, and we all need to get our asses into figuring it out.”

  
“Forget it. I’ve made a new life for myself here-”

  
“To hell with it!” Geoff shouted, patience growing slim. Jack wanted to come back, but he couldn’t just abandon everything. “To hell with it. You’ve lived a double life before, agent. Or have you forgotten?”

  
“..Fine. I’ll come back. But what makes you think the others will?”

  
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

  
\--

  
Ray had tried everything. He couldn’t find Ryan. He ended up just walking around in hopes of spotting some sign of him. He found his sign in the tunnels which ran under the city, where Ryan’s signature flare gun was left in the entrance. He even left the signature. Ray picked it up and followed the twists and turns of the tunnels, coming to a fork in the path, and deciding the path with the mask was a good indication he went that way. He picked up the mask and kept walking until he found his old friend. Ryan was in the corner, balled up, rocking back and forth, whispering to himself. Ray had seem him similar to this before.

  
“Ryan?” He spoke softly. A brick was chucked at him, and nearly took his head off.

  
“Ry, it’s Ray. Remember me?”

  
“Get the hell away from me.” His words were laced with venom.

  
“Or what, asshole? You can’t kill me, I can’t kill you. I just want to talk. Socializing helps them be quiet, remember? You told me that.” Ray spoke in a soft, gentle voice. Knowing full well Ryan couldn't kill him, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try if Ray so much as said the wrong thing.

  
“I don’t want to hurt you..”

  
Ray took a couple steps forward until he was just in front of Ryan, who without a doubt had lost what was left of his mind. Ryan’s eyes met his with aggression, but flickered to a soft, scared look for just long enough for Ray to take notice. His friend was still there, just tucked away and terrified.

  
“I’m not leaving, Ryan. I’m right here, because we’re friends. Fuckin’ WAFFLE-O right?”

  
The smallest smile flashed on Ryan’s lips before he hesitantly met Ray’s eyes again. No hiding the fear in them this time.

  
“I.. I can’t go back if that’s what you’re going to ask. I don’t want to hurt anyone..”

  
“Ryan, you’ve never hurt any of us except Jack, and he forgave you. You just didn't let yourself be forgiven. Even when you first showed up, you have a way with controlling yourself, man. Just come back until we figure out what’s going on, okay? Then it’s up to you what you do.”

  
“..Okay. Okay, fine, but if anything goes bad..”

  
“I’ll take the blame. Come on, big guy, let’s go. You get to talk Michael and Gavin into coming back with us.”

  
\---

  
They regrouped at the apartment building. Ray had promised Ryan he wouldn’t leave his side until he felt more comfortable around the guys again. Having his mask back on was nice, though. They took a few minutes to figure out how they would get Michael to agree, as they figured Gavin would be easy. Quite honestly, Gavin was desperately craving being around the rest of his friends, but he didn’t dare to bring it up to Michael, who he could tell felt the same. When there was a knock on their door, though, the happy face he had faded quickly in an attempt to not make himself seem desperate. Gavin sat in the other room, but when he heard Geoff’s voice, he came running to greet everyone, hugging onto Geoff like he hadn’t seen him in years.

 

“What are you assholes doing here?” Michael said in a voice that couldn’t sound more fake if he tried. He really wasn’t mad.

  
“Family reunion obviously.” Ray said sarcastically, earning a small glare from Michael, but he couldn’t keep the straight face and found himself smiling and shaking his head.

  
“No, really, what’s up assholes?”

  
“We need both of you to come back with us. Something’s going on, we need to figure it out, but we need everyone together to do it easier. You two are the only ones left, so, what do you say?” Geoff asked with a small grin, knowing Michael couldn’t say no at this point. The look Gavin was giving him wouldn’t allow it.

  
“Yeah, sure. We missed you guys.”

  
Gavin couldn’t even put words together to say them, just ultimately ended up squawking out happy noises of pure excitement. They all made their way back to the apartments, deciding on packing up their places at a later time, they had all the time in the world after all. Geoff sat them down at the spare apartment-turned-conference room.

  
“So-”

  
“Can we start with stories? We’ve got to tell stories about what’s been going on.” Gavin cut Geoff off with eyes full of excitement. With a sigh, Geoff motioned for him to go ahead.

  
“Er, well.. I don’t really have many, we’ve just been sat at home mostly, but..” He looked to Jack, knowing he had somethings to tell.

  
“I helped a lot of people out, started a home renovation company that’s doing pretty great actually.. Uh, had some houses built for homeless people.. Donated most the money away, invested in some stocks.. It’s been pretty great being away from you guys, but I’ll admit, I missed you all.” He finished with a smile, looking around for whoever wanted to go next.

  
“Ray and I learned a shit ton about each other. If any of you assholes see some unfamiliar gangs around, don’t hesitate to blow their fucking heads off.” Geoff said with a shrug, everyone’s eyes went to Ryan.

  
“I lived in the sewers and lost my mind. Nothing much else. Murder break.” He said simply, as if it was expected.

  
“Gavin’s a fucking liar, because we actually took a legit plane ride to France for a bit, sight seeing and whatever.” Michael started chuckling and could barely get the rest of his statement out. “We are no longer allowed in France.”

  
“How do you get banned from France?!” Jack asked.

  
“Well Fake AH is apparently known in France. And we really pissed some blokes off, and they were apparently quite important, and none of us are allowed in France now.” Gavin finished, falling into a fit of laughter himself.

  
“Well, glad to have everyone together again at least.” Geoff said, and everyone agreed. They missed each other.


	3. Gathering Troops

It was in the air. Things were amiss, and no one could pinpoint what it was. They discussed everything they could think of, it all came down to something with the immortality, but no one could figure out what it was. They gave up for the day and went back to Geoff’s apartment to catch up more than just little stories. The news was already on when they got up there, that’s when they found out what the reason for the strangeness was, but they wouldn’t know for awhile.

  
“New gang on the police reports tonight. Members are allegedly going under the name ‘Cockbites’ and according to the police reports, are dangerousand well armed. Citizens are told to keep all doors and windows locked. It’s been made clear, as you can see in the images being shown, that this rival crew is targeting ‘Fake AH’ who have been on the down low lately. More on the story at 11.”

 

They all stood in silence, still looking at the screen which had changed from the news report to the weather, but none of the six men were paying any attention to anything being said. Instead, they all silently pondered on this new gang.

  
“Back to the conference room?” Ray suggested, and all eyes went to Geoff. With a nod, they all went back to the room and returned to their previous seats.

  
“We can’t exactly plot against them just yet, we don’t have any information. Uh, anyone got a burner on them?” Geoff asked, pacing in front of the whiteboard.

  
Michael offered up his burner, setting it on the table for Geoff to grab. He dialed the number of someone who previously got information for them.

  
“Hello?”

  
“Lindsay? Can you do me a favor?”

  
The line went silent for a few moments.

  
“Depends, Geoff.”

  
“I need information on that Cockbite gang or whatever it is.”

  
“I’m afraid I can’t do that for you.”

  
“Why the hell not? They’re targeting us, we need to know what we’re up against!”

  
“You’ve known us for awhile, Geoff. But that’s all I can tell you about us.”

  
The line went dead. Silence once again fell over the six men, now sitting around a silent phone. If Lindsay wasn’t with them, they were screwed, she knew every last detail about Fake AH. She didn’t know about the immortality thing, but she knew just about everything else that could easily get them taken down.

  
“She knows all our weak points..” Michael said, looking up at Geoff, who didn’t meet his gaze, just shook his head.

  
“We’re fucked.” He muttered, mostly to himself.

  
“It’s not like they can kill us, right?” Ray asked, only to gain no response. No one knew how to give him one, because the same question was on everyone of their minds. What would happen if it ran out? What would happen if they just stopped being immortal for even a second when it came time they needed it most?

  
“They can sure try. I don’t know about you plebs, but when I found out I was immortal, it still bloody hurt for a bit.” Gavin pointed out.

  
“Try rolling down the side of a mountain.” Ray snorted.

  
“Try falling out of a bloody helicopter with no parachute! Splat like a damn bug!” To exaggerate his point, Gavin stood abruptly, knocking his chair back, and clapped his hands together with a look of mock horror on his face.

  
“Alright, sit down now.” Geoff instructed, waving his hand at Gavin, who fixed his chair and sat down again.

  
“Any ideas?” He continued, the room filled with silence apart from the hum of the overworked lights.

  
“We need spies.” Ryan stated. “We need to cut ties with everyone we’ve worked with in the past, and we need to get some people to spy for us.”

  
“I can round up a couple troubled teens for the cause?” Ray offered. “I know this one kid, she’d do it for nothing more than a pack of cigarettes per job."

 

Geoff nodded. “Get like 3 kids. Don’t tell them shit about us, just tell them it’ll be wise of them to cooperate. They’ll get rewards. Tell them the targets.”

  
“We don’t know the damn targets! We know one!” Gavin protested.

  
“That one will get us a lot more than none.” Michael countered. Gavin just nodded.

  
“Alright. As for us, we need to be ready. Lord knows who Lindsay’s working with now. We’ll swing by ammunation, get stocked up on everything. Armored cars.”

  
Everyone agreed to the makeshift plan, and split up between Ryan and Michael’s armored cars. They got what they could handle, and made it back to the apartment building, heading to Geoff’s. He didn’t want them to be separated right now, just to be on the safe side. At least until they knew who they were at war against. But they knew Lindsay was dangerous, they knew she knew just about every detail about them, and they were more scared of her than who she might be working with now. And with good reason, she could ruin them.

  
They sat around the apartment for hours doing nothing, until someone suggested as a joke they play a game of monopoly. They did, except for Ray, who said he had to go make a deal with a couple kids to do spy work for them once it got dark enough outside.

  
\--

  
It was a clear night, though with all the streetlights and flashy signs, the stars were drowned out into a dull blur which no one could find joy in. Why anyone liked living in the city was beyond him, he preferred the stars. But he supposed it was for the best that the stars didn’t shine over a city as damned to criminal content as Los Santos. He didn’t want the stars watching over this city.

  
It wasn’t long before he found his targets. The first was easy to spot, a boy named Tommy. He had been thrown out like yesterday’s garbage when he was 16, and he had done work for Ray before he joined Fake AH.

  
“Tommy?”

  
“Ray?! The hell are you doing here, man?”

  
“I need a favor.”

  
The kid’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. He liked doing jobs, even if they were small. He liked the danger it put him in a bit too much.

  
“What can I do for ya’ boss?”

  
“I need you to gather some information for me. There’s this gang out, Cockbites. See, they’re very dangerous, and we only know of one member. I need you to keep an eye out for this girl.” He handed Tommy a small photo of Lindsay. “If you see her, I need you to do something pretty risky for me if you think you can handle it.”

  
“I can handle it.”

  
“I have a blow dart I am going to give you. You hit her with it, it will make it so we can track her.”

  
“Sounds good.”

  
“Reward isn’t set in stone yet.”

  
“Dude,” Tommy paused, giving Ray the biggest smile. “Just getting to do something is reward enough. But I mean, a place to stay would be nice.”

  
Ray smiled and ruffled the smaller, younger kid’s hair. “I’ll see what I can do, buddy. Stay safe.”

  
\--

  
“Dammit Ryan, that’s not how you play!!” Michael yelled, fighting back laughter.

  
“It is too!!” Ryan yelled back, fighting laughter of his own. His mask rest by his side, face lacking the familiar paint.

  
“Ryan, Michael’s right, man.” Geoff said between laughs. He and Jack were losing it over all the fighting going on. Gavin had given up on the game early on, opting to recording the whole ordeal for later in life. He wanted to remember these moments, even if he couldn’t die. All the more reason to record it. He chimed in with commentary and joining in on conversations, laughing at all the fighting going on. It was nice, they could all agree, to be together again.

  
\--

  
The next teen was just as easy to find as Tommy. His name was John, he was 18 and living on the streets, trying to get out of his latest drug addiction. John and Ray used to be close, but when a guy pulls a knife on you for no good reason other than he was high off his ass with a worse temper than Michael, he decided to leave.

  
“John Goodman?”

  
“..Ray? The fuck? Thought you were dead, asshole, what’s up?”

  
“Need a favor. I’ll make it worth your time, don’t worry.”

  
John seemed to contemplate letting Ray go on, looking at him with a curious look that seemed like he was deep in thought. Ultimately he decided it would be something to distract himself at the very least, so he turned back to Ray with a much clearer expression.

  
“What can I do for you?”

  
“How sneaky are you?”

  
“Not very anymore.” He gestured to his leg, which was black and blue all over and swollen something fierce, with bits of blood clinging to his skin like a bunch of stickers.

 

“Jesus. I didn’t even notice, man, what happened?”

  
“Fuckin’ dog. I tried to steal some drugs from this guy I used to do work for, called his dog on my ass. Fuckin’ rottweiler would’ve tore me to shreds if I didn’t hop that fence when I did. Got my leg good though, can’t barely walk on it anymore.”

  
“Fuck, man. I can find someone else for the job-”

  
“Hell no you won’t. Just give me the ol’ sit and watch, I can do it.”

  
“Alright, if you insist. We have that Tommy kid doing some tracking for us, once we get a location, I’ll find somewhere for you to keep an eye from. That sound good?”

  
“Peachy. Meet me back here when you find what you need, I ain’t goin’ no where.”

  
“Thanks, man. We can probably get your leg treated, you know?”

  
“It’s been like this for a month at least. They’d have to chop it.”

  
“That’s better than rotting out, don’t you think?”

  
“Yeah, I mean, I guess so. Yeah, why not, let’s do it. After the job though.”

  
“Got it, John. Uh, I gotta go get the last person. If I can fucking find that rat.”

  
“Jen?”

  
“Nah, Rickie.”

  
“Shit. Good luck with that.”

  
“See you later, man.”

  
\--

  
“They had officially given up on monopoly. They all decided on gathering up on the couch together, watching a series of dumb comedy movies. Popcorn with plenty of butter was being torn apart like it was going out of style, and things seemed relatively peaceful back in the apartment. It was nice.

  
\--

  
Rickie was the hardest to find. Mostly because she was small, and knew every inch of this city like the back of her hand. She couldn’t be found unless she wanted to, most of the time. Lucky enough, tonight was one of the nights she was feeling social. She sat at the beach, watching the waves come in. Ray knew it was her by the colorful strips all throughout her messy hair, paired with the blue torn to shit jacket, it was without a doubt Rickie. She jerked around, quickly standing with a knife drawn at Ray. When she recognized him, she put it away and relaxed a bit.

 

“Hey, Ray.”

  
“Hey, Rickie.”

  
“Let me guess. You need a favor?”

  
“Yes. You hear about the Cockbites?”

  
“Of course. Are you sending a 17 year old homeless girl out on a bunch of criminals, Ray?” She asked, pulling a pouty face.

  
“Don’t look at me like that. I just need you to do me a favor.”

  
She giggled. “Of course you do. What’s in it for me?”

  
“Shit dude, what do you even want?”

  
“Enough money for a place to live? Or at least money for food, I know you guys are like loaded, but I don’t want to take all of it.”

  
“Trust me, you pull this off, we’ll give you a place free of charge with paid food.”

  
“Sweet. Okay, whatcha got for me, Narvaez?”

  
“I need you to make Lindsay trust you. I need you to play some innocent, terrified girl, and she will absolutely go out of her way to at least try to cheer you up. I’m talking spiked up water works, shivering, look as near death and broken hearted as possible. When she stops to talk to you, tell her you’ve been sexually abused or some shit, she will go crazy protective over you. If she brings you back to her apartment, the second she leaves you have to scout the place for cameras, if there aren’t any, get every inch of information that place has. Computers, files, the whole shabang.”

  
“Sounds good boss.”

  
“If there are cameras, find a way to disable them.”

  
“Got it.”

  
“Alright, well I gotta get back to the guys now. Keep yourself out of trouble until I tell you when to go. Stay here or out at the base of Chilliad until then.”

  
“Alright, jeez. I got it, I’ll be easy to find.”

  
“See you when I see you, Rickster.”

  
“Later, dickbreath.”

  
\--

  
When Ray returned to the apartment, the boys had been two movies deep into horror movies, with the lights off. Ray quietly made his way inside, went up behind the couch, and scared the shit out of everyone. Gavin instantly wrapped himself around Michael, who was yelling for Gavin to get the fuck off of him. Ryan fell off the couch all together and when he saw it was just Ray, started laughing at the situation. Jack stood quickly, holding his chest before bursting out laughing. Geoff, being as on edge as he had been, stood steadily and drew his gun, setting it down with an annoyed groan at seeing Ray, who was now laughing his ass off, doubled over.

  
“If this is how we act at being scared, we’re about to seriously put our immortality to the test.” Ryan said, standing up, just as Michael pushed Gavin to the floor, clearly annoyed.

 

“You’re welcome.” Ray said, calming from his fit of laughter.


	4. How To Walk Off A Car Crash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out how Michael realized he was immortal, ft the thing every story needs.

The first to realize the gift of immortality was a criminal. He wasn’t on his own, he was part of a gang. He was always an angry fellow, with a soft side towards the members of the crew. Because they were the most family he had anymore.

  
Slightly intoxicated, going through a rough patch in his young life, he was speeding down any road his heart brought him to. The sky was filled with what little stars city life granted, and streetlights and headlights were blinding to the man who already had poor vision as things were. His mistakes caught up to him, of course, and the car flipped over the side of an overpass and was slammed into by whatever unlucky cars happened to be on the road at the time. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt, and flew out the windshield, landing in a bloody pool with a rush of pain. But he wasn’t dead.

  
He was close enough the car still, he heard the explosion before he felt the heat. It wasn’t too bad, he figured. He was still alive. He knew if he waited for an ambulance, he’d be taken into jail when he was well. He figured he wasn’t dead yet, he could very much still feel all his limbs. He made an attempt to get up, to his surprise, he didn’t fall over. He stood. Shakily and unsteady, but he stood. The circle of people who had flooded the scene were filled with absolute fear now. He walked away, staggering at first, but eventually fell into a stream of steady strides as he noticed his injuries healing before his eyes. He thought he must be hallucinating. He poked the healing injuries, they hurt. They hurt like hell to touch. But then they healed over, and touching them no longer hurt. He was alive, and he was healed.   
He went back to the safe house, to try to tell the rest of the crew what had happened.

  
\--

Michael woke up with a jolt, looking around to assure himself he was still on the floor of Geoff’s apartment before relaxing back into the mess of blankets that subsided as a bed. He sat up, unable to fall back asleep straight away, and took a last look at all the sleeping bodies of his friends to make sure he hadn’t woken any of them up. They all remained asleep.

 

He got up to go get a glass of water. He didn’t like the fact he suddenly was having dreams about how he figured out he was immortal. He didn’t need to be reminded of all of it, he figured. He hadn’t wished to be reminded of the stupid car flipping, and he certainly didn’t want to be reminded of the reasons why he got into that stupid mess.   
He sighed, still shaking from the details of the dream, which clung to him like bugs in the spring. The glass slipped from his fingers before he could fill it with water, and he cursed under his breath, letting his now empty fist slam to the counter top. He stood there, eyes closed, taking deep breaths to try to get himself under control again.   
“What the hell is going on in here?” Geoff mumbled, sleep thick in his voice as he approached Michael.

  
“I dropped the fucking glass, just go back to bed.” Was the frustrated response.

  
“You’re.. Michael, you’re shaking like a fucking dog, what’s going on?” Geoff asked, tiredness leaving his voice for a more concerned tone.

  
“Just a dumbass dream okay?”

  
“Was it about the crash?” Geoff asked softly. Michael was quiet for a minute, avoiding looking at Geoff for the time being, and just nodding. Geoff went over to where Michael stood and gently rubbed a small circle on his back.

  
“It was just a dream, buddy.”

  
“But it wasn’t. It was a memory more than anything. Christ, at least Gavin wakes up before the pain hits..”

  
“Well.. It’s about 6:00 AM, so if you want to stay up, Jack should be awake soon, and we can all find something to do, alright?”

  
Michael nodded, sighing to himself. Geoff told him to go sit on the couch, that he would clean up the mess. Gavin had apparently been woken up at some point, and now got up to plop himself down on Michael’s lap.

  
“Are you alright, Micoo?” He asked softly. Gavin was always more of a morning person, unlike most everyone else. Him and Jack were the first two awake every morning, today was an exception.

  
“Yeah, I’m fine, Gav. Just a bad dream.” He lazily wrapped his arms around the smaller man’s waist as Gavin cuddled against him, seemingly going back to sleep. Two seconds later, he jolted awake again though and starred at Michael with a look of horror.

  
“What? What is it?” Michael asked in confusion.

  
“We left the damn dog!” Gavin spoke quiet enough not to wake anyone else. After a minute of processing, Michael joined in on Gavin’s horrified look.

  
“Shit! Come on, let’s go get her real quick.”

  
Michael went to stand, nearly knocking Gavin onto the floor. The two of them scrambled to the door, only stopping midway through putting jackets and shoes on when Geoff spoke up.

  
“Where are you assholes going?”

  
“We had a dog. We left her at the house.” Michael explained quickly. Geoff looked like he was going to argue that there was no way in hell he was bringing a dog in here, but then decided it might be a good idea. Plus he had a soft spot for animals, most the time at least. He waved the two boys off, and they sprinted down to the garage.

  
They sped off, ignoring every road ruling and swerving around cars. It’s too early for too many people to be out, but those who were, clearly were tired and driving too slow for Michael’s liking. They made it to the house and Gavin fumbled with the keys for a good five minutes before unlocking the door and opening it quickly, resulting in their dog to bark at them, stopping only when she spotted it was just those two. She ran up to them, making happy noises and jumping on Michael, causing him to stumble backwards a step. She was only about a year old, but she was pretty big. Then again, German Shepherds weren’t exactly known for being tiny breeds of dogs. Gavin immediately bent down to affectionately scratch the dog’s head, petting her and getting his face covered in puppy kisses.

  
“Who’s a good girl?! Who’s a good little girl?! You are, yes you are!” He spoke in a baby voice to the very excited dog. Michael grabbed her leash and clipped it onto her AH Green collar, leading her to his car and putting her in the back, where Gavin insisted on sitting with her to make sure she didn’t fall over or something due to Michael’s driving.

  
They arrived back to the apartment building, bringing her in the elevator and into Geoff’s apartment. Everyone was awake by now, Ray seemingly just woke up, and was obviously not too happy about it. Michael unclipped the dog’s leash, letting her run around the apartment a bit. She ran over to Ray first, and his mood seemed to improve a little, petting the dog with a small bit of a smile. Next she full on jumped onto Ryan’s lap, attacking his face with kisses until Michael called her off of him. She ran over to Jack, who was fixing some breakfast, nudging against his leg until he went to pet her, giving her a small piece of the already cooked bacon, with Gavin’s permission of course. She went over to Geoff, who was fixing a cup of coffee for himself, and of course he tried to play tough.

  
“Go away, go see someone else.”

  
The dog just sat down and tilted her head, starring up at him with those damn puppy eyes. Geoff tried to fight it, but he couldn’t. He knelt down with a smile and started petting her, falling victim of puppy eyes once again. After investigating everyone, the dog seemed more than happy to curl up on an empty part of the couch, resting her head in Ray’s lap, prompting him to pet her. He didn’t really mind, of course, he loved dogs.

  
“What’s her name?” Ray asked from the couch.

  
“Flynt.” Gavin responded with a goofy smile. Flynt’s ears perked up at hearing her name, laying her head back down after realizing they weren’t talking to her.

  
“Did it for the meme, nice.”   



	5. Knowing Your Enemies

Plans were made, and now everyone was in Geoff’s apartment, ear pieces in, where they “patiently” waited for Tommy to give them the sign the tracker was on Lindsay. Flynt sat with them, tilting her head every now and then at Geoff, pacing the room like he couldn’t keep still.

  
“What’s taking him so long?!” Geoff asked for the third time now, anxiously pacing back and forth.

  
“Any minute now.” Ray answered calmly.

  
“Can’t we com him?”

  
“We could ruin his focus if he’s on target. Give him like ten more minutes.”

  
They only had to wait 5. Those 5 minutes felt more like 5 hours.

  
“Guys? I hit her with the tracker, she didn’t notice. Kept walking.” Tommy’s breathless voice came over the feed.

  
“Why do you sound like-”

  
“Sorry I’m just- I’m just really excited to do this.” He cut Ray off, giving a small, clearly nervous chuckle.

  
“Alright, Tommy, wait for me tonight at the same spot, I’ll come get you tonight, man.”

  
“Thanks, Ray. Bye guys!”

  
They had plenty of extra apartments in this place, having only the six of them living there. Surely having 3 more apartments filled shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right? Except Geoff hadn’t known.

  
“What do you mean you’ll go get him?” Geoff questioned with exasperation.

  
“They all wanted a place to stay and we literally own an apartment building. Oh, and John needs medical work bad.” Ray explained with a shrug as though it was no big deal. It really wasn’t, but Geoff just didn’t like the idea of these kids hanging around. He sighed and slumped down in his chair, Jack patting his shoulder reassuringly and Flynt trotted over to Ryan, who smiled warmly and scratched behind her ears, which were slightly too large for her and would sometimes flop over her head like a pancake.

  
\--

  
They had where the Cockbites had met last time mapped out, under an overpass. Ray lead John to his position and equipped him with things he would need, before heading to another hiding spot where he checked in with everyone back at the apartment that they were both in place. After making sure John’s com worked, they sat and waited. When the Cockbites finally showed up, it was up to John to tap into mics they had hid down below to feed their conversation back to the apartment, and it was up to Ray to try to identify and get pictures of the gang for Ryan to analyze and properly identify them using a computer.

  
“I’ve got the pictures, sending them your way now, Ry.” Ray said as he sent over the files.

  
“Got them.” Was the short reply.

  
“John, try to fix the signal, it’s getting choppy.” Geoff instructed, and John did all he knew how to fix it. He was a pretty smart dude, if Ray was being honest.   
“The hell is this?” Someone from below asked, spotting one of the mics.

  
“Shit. John get down, don’t say a word, they have a jammer probably anyways.” Ray ordered, and John dropped to the best of his ability with his inured leg, and Ray got down as low as he could, pistol in hand just in case it came to a gun fight. Luckily, it didn’t, and the Cockbites left relatively quickly, clearly not ready for a fight at the current time. Ray took John back to the apartment and had Geoff call in their doctors to take care of John in one of the apartments-turned-hospital rooms. He returned to Geoff’s apartment where the results as to who were in the gang were just coming in.

  
“Well?” Jack asked as Ryan looked over them first.

  
“Well, we’re dealing with an all female gang. That’s always fun.” Ryan said sarcastically, casting a glance at Geoff, who sighed. Girls were always more careful and planned out than guys, not to mention they were hidden easier in most cases.

  
“Who are we working with?” Michael asked with his arm lazily around a sleeping Gavin.

  
“Geoff, you won’t like this.” Ryan said cautiously.

  
“Why not?”

  
“Griffon Ramsey.”

  
Geoff fell silent. They used to be partners before all this started. They were married even. Well, not technically, it was more so just a ploy so she wouldn’t get caught as easily. She was always in deeper shit than Geoff, they figured with a different name, maybe the other gangs would get off her case long enough for the relocation. He guessed she just hadn’t changed her name again, though they’ve been separated since she ran off in order to lay low for awhile. They were always venomous together. If they wanted to, they probably could have overthrew the world and made it their own. Maybe it’s for the best they got separated because of the agency.

  
“Geoff? Who is that?” Jack questioned. So he hadn’t told anyone. Ryan only knew because Griffon had hired him temporarily before Geoff had brought him into the gang.

  
“Old partner. Legally, she is also my wife.” Geoff answered with his head in his hands. He thought dealing with Lindsay would be the worst of it, oh how wrong he was.

  
“Who else is there, Ry?” Ray asked.

  
“Let’s see.. We’ve got Griffon, Lindsay.. There’s a Meg Turney here.. Mica Burton.. Caiti Ward.. And there’s also a Tina Dayton here.. Going off what comes up with their names, we are royally fucked.” Ryan said with a sigh, rubbing his face, only resulting in a concerned Flynt coming to see what’s going on, leaving her spot on the couch, where she had been sitting on Gavin and Michael. Her jumping up resulted in Gavin waking up, clearly annoyed. He rubbed his eyes, glaring around in the brightness of the room. It was sunny for once, and Gavin wasn’t having any of it right now.

  
“Would you bastards be quiet?” He grumbled.

  
“We’re finding out who we’re up against, keep your ass awake.” Geoff said, tossing a pillow at him.

  
“Well? Who is it then?” Gavin questioned, seemingly woken up fully now.

  
“You already missed it. Ryan, want to just show him the computer?” Michael questioned, reaching out for the laptop since he was closer, and handing it to Gavin who silently read through the files.

  
“You’re having a laugh?! Meg bloody Turney?! The girl will slit our throats before we know she’s even here!” Gavin yelled in exasperation.

  
“You know her?” Ray asked with a clearly confused look.

  
“She’s literally considered the best assassin on this bloody planet! Don’t you plebs pay attention to the news?!”

  
“Gavvers, calm down. Flynt will know if anyone’s here. We trained her for protecting us.” Michael assured.

  
“What? There’s no way this dog would hurt a fly!” Jack said as Flynt bound over to him and instantly rolled over for him to rub her belly. Surely she was far too sweet and friendly to ever even hurt a fly. Gavin stood, walking to the closet and pulling out a plush, human sized dummy. They previously used it for testing to see if they’d die or not, but clearly they didn’t need it for that anymore. He carefully sat the dummy against a wall and sat back on the couch where he previously had been. Jack continued petting Flynt, who seemed perfectly content where she was.

  
“Flynt! Go get em’, girl!” Gavin yelled with a whistle, point at the dummy. Without second thought, Flynt jumped up and charged at the dummy, growling and biting, and tearing the stuffing right out of it’s neck. With a whistle from Gavin, Flynt ran over to where he sat, and Gavin gave her a treat, scratching her head and praising her. Michael smiled proudly, joining Gavin in the praising, while the rest of the crew looked between the dummy and dog in silence. They hadn’t thought she was trained to attack on command, for probably for the best.

  
“But.. Flynt is the sweetest dog of all time, and could kill a man? If she was a chick I’d be in love right now.” Geoff said with a chuckle.

 


	6. Partners In Crime

It was starting to get dark outside as the boys talked and told stories, still amazed with how quick Flynt was on the attack, not even pausing more than a second before finding her target. As it grew dark, Ray set off to go round up Tommy.

  
The nights in Los Santos made Ray hate it here even more than he did already. Sometimes from Chilliad you could see the stars, it was nice. He kept meaning to camp up there one night to just get lost in the sky for awhile. That’s something he enjoyed while they traveled, sometimes they’d come across a place with a beautiful night sky, filled with stars that shone bright as polished diamonds. But he knew better than to make that comment out loud, he was already the meme guy, and he wasn’t too thrilled about the title’s responsibility.

  
He found Tommy at the usual spot, fighting off sleep. He reached out to help pull his friend off the ground, the drowsy boy grabbed onto Ray’s hand and pulled himself up, smiling happy as could be.

  
“You excited?” Ray asked, taking note of the sudden energy that seemed to come over Tommy.

  
“I’m getting a place to stay, dude, this is great!” Tommy replied with a small chuckle.

  
“And you couldn’t find a home in a more dangerous place, which is also coincidentally the safest place in Los Santos.”

  
“Pets are allowed, right?” Tommy asked, turning to Ray with a worried look.

  
“Well we have a dog, so I guess? Why, you don’t-”

  
Ray was cut off my Tommy swinging his backpack off his shoulder and unzipping it, carefully reaching in and slowly pulling out a small kitten who looked on the brink of death. It’s fur was matted and clumped up by mud, it’s eyes looked simply pitiful, Ray felt his heart drop a little just looking at the poor thing. Even if Geoff wasn’t keen on having animals in his building, he couldn’t refuse this poor little kitten, Ray knew that for a fact. He had such a soft spot for animals.

  
“Shit dude. Let’s get that poor thing back to the apartments. Take it up to Geoff’s, Ryan and Jack would know exactly what to do to make it not so.. Death.” Ray said, eyes not leaving the kitten as they approached the apartment building. They were a few feet from the door when Ray roughly grabbed Tommy and pulled him back, staring at the trip wire directly in front of the door. Tommy didn’t see it at first, giving Ray a questioning look before following his gaze to the door.

  
“Let’s just.. Let’s go around back, yeah?” Ray suggested, nudging Tommy around the building, keeping a watchful eye out. Not wanting to disarm it in case it was set by one of the guys. They found the back entrance clear, stepping in carefully. After checking to be sure it was safe, the two took the elevator to the top floor, joining everyone else in Geoff’s apartment. Flynt was at the door, barking threateningly until she saw Ray, then she calmed down back to her happy little self. Until she saw the cat, that is. Her ears perked up as she sniffed at the small creature still in Tommy’s hands. Tommy was worried Flynt might eat the kitten, Ray assured him she was just trying to figure out what it was. Flynt sat down after inspecting the small animal, tilting her head in confusion.

  
“Hey Ry? Think you and Jack could help Tommy clean this little guy up?” Ray asked, shutting the door behind them and once again nudging Tommy forward. It was clear Tommy had never seen Ryan before, freezing in place with wide eyes as he looked over the larger man, a blush finding it’s way to his cheeks as Ryan took the small kitten from him, looking at it. Ray eyed Tommy suspiciously.

  
“I’ll take you to the apartment you get for tonight, until we get something more stable set up.” He muttered, waiting for some signal that Tommy had heard him.

  
“Tommy?” He tried once more to get the younger man’s attention, with a sharper tone of voice. Though Tommy was lost in his own world, starring at Ryan with wide, loving eyes.

 

Everyone minus Jack and Ryan, who were cleaning the kitten, turned to see what was going on. Michael, knew right away what it was. Geoff and Gavin could easily guess.

 

 

Jealousy could always be counted on to cut even the calmest man’s temper short.

  
Ray gave Tommy an icy glare before grabbing the boy’s arm a little harsh, pulling him towards the door.

  
“Where-?”

  
“Just follow me.” Ray was making an obvious attempt at keeping himself from punching Tommy in the face. Ryan was his. He wasn’t for Tommy to get all googly-eyed over. He kept walking to the apartment he decided on for the younger man, opening the door for him. When the curly haired boy got inside, Ray muttered a goodnight before closing the door and heading back to Geoff’s apartment.

  
“Something tells me you’re not too friendly with Tommy now, huh?” Geoff teased. Ray glared at him, clearly not in the mood.

  
“Gah- Michael will you keep Flynt by you? She’s scaring the kitten.” Jack yelled from the kitchen. Michael whistled and Flynt came rushing over, sliding a bit on the wooden floor, nearly falling over before jumping up on his lap.

  
“Good girl!” He praised, petting the dog’s head lovingly.

  
Everyone sat in relative silence, waiting for Jack and Ryan to finish with the kitten so someone other than Ryan would give it back to Tommy. Ray decided he didn’t want Tommy to get near Ryan anymore. It wasn’t long before everything was finished, and Ryan came back, holding the tiny little creature in his hand, making an awkward gesture towards Michael and Flynt. He seemed to get the picture, leading Flynt away from the kitten until Ryan decided it was okay. He brought the kitten around, letting everyone look and pet the kitten, very gently. Once everyone was done cooing over the small creature, eyes still shut, Michael brought Flynt over, keeping a hold of her collar in case she tried anything. She’s never been around a cat before. She sniffed at the small pile of fluff in Ryan’s hand, making a sound of confusion when it made no reply. She licked the kitten’s head once before sitting down, wagging her tail and tilting her head. She didn’t really know what the small cat was, but she knew it was just a baby and needed to be loved. Ryan handed the kitten to Jack, sitting down next to Ray, as Jack left to bring the kitten to Tommy’s apartment. Ryan slung his arm over Ray’s shoulders, prompting the younger man to lean against him. Jack returned with the kitten still in hand, looking panicked.

  
“Jack? What happened?” Geoff asked, standing up and walking over to Jack as he slammed the door shut behind him.

  
“Tommy’s gone. The word “Bye” is like carved into the wall by the window.” He sounded just as panicked as he looked.

  
“Do you think it was the Cockbites?” Gavin asked.

  
“Who else would it be, idiot? Let me take a look at the carving, the sentiment sounds familiar.” Geoff huffed, making his way down to the third floor with everyone following behind him, whatever guns they happened to have on them were in hand now, but Geoff kept his hidden for now. If he was right on the culprit, they’d be safe for now. He walked into the already opened door, observing the markings carefully. He took notice of the G carved not far from the little message.

  
“It’s Griffon.” He said with a sigh. “What the hell does she of all people want from us? If anything she’d be helping us!” Geoff finished, running his hands through his hair. This situation just kept getting worse, he figured.

  
“We should check on John.” Ray brought up, already making for the door. They all followed, turning into a race to the basement. Upon arriving, they were relieved to find he was still there, just both he and Kerry were currently unconscious. But that wasn’t the worst that could have happened, they decided.

  
They decided to split up and check both rooms for any clues as to where Griffon brought Tommy, and what had happened to Kerry and John. The lads took Tommy’s room, knowing that Jack and Ryan had more experience with sedatives and poisons, to figure out if Kerry and John would die or not. Geoff went to work looking over the camera footage. It was no surprise they had deleted it. He knew how to access the backup files, after Ryan explained it to him for the fifth time at least, there was video. Black and white and fuzzy all over, but there was indeed video. Ryan took a break from examining Kerry to press a few buttons, sharpening the footage and giving Geoff a pat on the shoulder before going back to looking over Kerry and running what tests he could. Jack came to the conclusion that John was out for medical reasons, not seeing anything to indicate otherwise. The tape confirmed his thought, Kerry had put John out long before anyone else showed up.

  
Speeding through the tape until he saw someone else enter the room, Geoff slowed it down once more to get a look at who it was. The screen lacking color made it hard to pinpoint any features. But as soon as she looked up to the camera and waved, he knew exactly who it was. Lindsay had injected Kerry with something, he couldn’t get a clear read of the vial. Ryan kept trying to figure out if it was going to kill Kerry or not, when he woke up.

  
“Hey guys.. What’s going on?” He mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his head as though he had no clue what had just gone on around him or what had happened to him.

  
“Well, I guess it wasn’t poison. Pretty weak sedative to wear off that quickly, the tape says this all happened when, like thirty minutes ago?” Ryan stated, walking back over to where Geoff sat, fiddling with buttons he didn’t understand well to try to work with the video more. Ryan hit two buttons and fixed Geoff’s mistake, which Geoff took as a sign to get up at let Ryan handle the tech stuff.

  
“Alright, let’s see what Lindsay was up to..” Ryan said slowly as he watched the video play out. It looked like she just took a couple files, which Jack, Kerry, and Geoff were already looking for which ones were missing by the time Ryan went to turn and tell them to do just that.

  
“Her file is gone. We didn’t have anything on anyone else. Shouldn’t we have had something on Griffon?” Jack asked, directing the question towards Geoff.

  
“I.. We were partners.. I was stupid. I wanted to keep her safe, and I also wanted to forget about her..” He said in an unhappy tone, it was clear he didn’t want to dwell on the subject of Griffon more than he had to.

  
“What other file is gone? She took 3.” Ryan changed the subject back to the task on hand.

  
“Er.. She took your file, Ryan.” Kerry spoke up.

  
“What? Why me?” Ryan asked in return, confusion clear on his face and in his voice.

  
“You two used to work together, she knows everything about you..” Jack said in similar confusion.

  
“Maybe she’s trying to keep the others from knowing about you..” Geoff muttered.

  
“Your.. Geoff, your file is gone too.” Jack spoke up, rifling through the crew files.

  
“What?” Geoff questioned, lightly pushing Jack out of the way to look for himself. He found a note at the back of the cabinet.

  
_“Thank us later. Partners stick together <3 - Lindsay & Griffon”_

  
A smile found it’s way onto Geoff’s lips. Griffon was keeping him safe too, he just didn’t know from what yet. Ryan skipped over the touchy feely bit of the situation and instead went straight to wondering what they were trying to protect them from. It couldn’t just be protection from Cockbites, could it?


	7. Cracking Up (Breaking Down)

The lads searched about the room which Tommy previously was in. They came up empty handed, luckily, they had Flynt with them. She sniffed around awhile, stopping at the couch, sniffing underneath, then barking excitedly, trying to get someone to look for her. Everyone rushed over to her from the different rooms they had been inside. Gavin found the little note heavily scented with perfume which Flynt had been barking at and read it out loud for the others to hear.

  
_“Don’t worry, your friend is safe. Wait for my call. - Griffon”_

  
They figured they had found everything they were going to find inside the small apartment. Sticking together closely, they returned to Geoff’s apartment to wait for the gents to return, or for the alarm to be flipped. They all had multiple “panic buttons” of sorts in case any of them got into trouble off on their own.

  
The door opened, and all of them came inside, walking over to join the lads in the living room. Gavin handed Geoff the note, figuring he would be better suited to know about the note than the others. Reading it over multiple times, he crumpled it in a white-knuckled fist, closing his eyes.

 

“A phone call from her is the last thing I want right now.” He grumbled, plopping himself down on the couch and tossing his phone on the table. Waiting for the phone to ring, they all sat around the living room in silence.

  
“Do you think they’ll give Tommy back?” Gavin asked after minutes of slow silence.

  
“I don’t know.” Geoff replied, growing tired of waiting. He liked living in the fast lane, waiting wasn’t something he was good at.

  
Finally, after what felt like hours, it rang. It hadn’t even made it through the first ring before Geoff answered in a hurry. “Don’t give me any bullshit puzzles, where the hell is Tommy?”

  
“I was hoping we could chat. No?” They could practically hear her smile through the phone.

  
“Don’t fuck with me, Griffon.” Geoff grumbled.

  
“Aw come on, lighten up. You want the kid that bad?”

  
“Yes.” Was the simple reply.

  
“I think you might change your mind. You didn’t bother doing a check on the kid, did you?” She asked.

  
“No? He’s one of Ray’s friends.”

  
“Was.” Ray muttered, the jealousy of seeing him look at Ryan like that stirring up again.

  
“We share a common enemy, Geoff. This rat is a spy.” Griffon said matter-of-factly.

  
“What are you-?” He didn’t understand. He didn’t want to understand.

  
“We’re doing you a favor. Listen to me, Geoff, for old time’s sake. Get your men ready, because we’re running out of time. The war is on our heels, we have to be ready.” She hung up.

  
“Wha-? Griffon! What... What?” Geoff was confused to no ends, eyes darting between the phone and the people around him, who all were looking to him for an explanation.

  
“Well.. What do we do now?” Michael asked.

  
“We need to get Tommy back.” Ryan answered, to which Ray cast him a silent glare he didn’t even see.

  
“I uh, I think it’s better if we don’t.” Jack assured. No one wanted Ray to be pissed. He may be small, but when he’s mad he’s the human embodiment of what happens when a tornado and volcano mix.

  
“Jack, he’s too important now.” Ryan argued, seemingly the only person unaware of Ray’s growing anger.

  
“Ryan, serious dude, Griffon is probably right.” Michael spoke up.

  
“Yeah, probably shouldn’t save the spy.” Gavin agreed, Geoff nodded in agreement.

  
“I don’t give a fuck, we need to get him back, I need him- I mean, I need to talk to him.” Ryan argued, flubbing his words in just the wrong way. Ray, who had been stood behind Ryan, nodded and stormed off, leaving the apartment and hurrying to get out of the building as quick as he could manage.

  
“Where-?” Ryan tried to ask, getting mildly annoyed stares from everyone.

  
“I’ll uh, go try to find him.” He said, making to leave, no one stopped him. By the time he made it outside, he knew Ray was long gone, and going off the slam of the door, he was pissed. He got in his Adder, going to Ray’s favorite spot up on Chilliad. He assumed he was right on where to go the more brutally murdered, bloodied bodies lining the streets. Car parts here and there, fires still burning, blood like water staining the asphalt of the road, pooling around corpses and in the shapes of footprints and tire marks. He sped through the ruckus, getting up to the top, dodging the dead bodies of police men and hikers alike. He saw Ray sitting against a rock, knees pulled up to his chest. He got out of the car as quiet as he could and slowly made his way closer to Ray. Upon getting closer, he took notice how Ray was rocking himself back and forth, breaths seeming labored and forced. He got a few steps closer before all at once, Ray was standing and had a gun aimed at Ryan. Setting the weapons he kept on him down, Ryan stood back up with his hands visible. He slowly inched closer, not looking to get shot again. He could see now Ray had been crying.

  
“I just want to talk.” Ryan spoke calmly. Ray didn’t even seem to hear him, or simply ignored him. He was starting to shake though.

  
“Ray-”

  
“Get the hell away.” Ray spat at him, anger obvious, but Ryan could tell there was more to it.

  
“Come on now, can’t you talk to me?”

  
“No.” Ray replied, shaking worse than before, blinking fast.

  
“Ray.. Put the gun down. Talk to me. I’m your friend-”

  
“That’s part of the fucking problem!” He yelled, throwing the gun in the process, knowing it wouldn’t do anything. Ryan gave him a confused and taken back look.

  
“What?”

  
“I like you, alright?!” He yelled in anger, his defenses crumbling as tears pricked at his eyes for what wasn’t the first time that night. “I like you, and so does Tommy, and you only care about getting him back! So go, go on and get him back, since you need him so damn bad!”

  
All at once, it clicked in Ryan’s mind and he felt his heart skip a beat. He pulled Ray into a hug, standing there just holding him as tight as he could without fear of breaking the significantly smaller man who fought against him for a few minutes before letting Ryan hug him, sobbing quietly into his chest.

  
“You couldn’t have just told me that before? Christ, Ray, I love you. I said I needed to talk to him, get answers out of him. You know exactly how I get answers out of people..” Ryan said quietly. He felt Ray’s arms wrap around him and hug him at least twice as tight as he was currently holding Ray with.

  
“We should get back to the guys before too long.” He spoke softly. Ray looked up at him, visibly calming down and nodded.

  
“Yeah, probably.”

  
The two walked back to Ryan’s Adder, Ray’s car had been blown up by the cops probably.

  
“Am I really that oblivious?” Ryan questioned as they got inside the car.

  
“What?” Ray questioned, not sure what Ryan was even talking about.

  
“After you left, they literally all gave me annoyed looks. Did you tell all them or?”

  
“No! I told Michael, that’s it. Yeah, I guess you’re pretty oblivious. I mean, I kept leaving you gifts and bringing things back from solo’s for you.” Ray spoke with a small smile.

  
“I uh.. Yeah..” Ryan’s cheeks were tinted red in embarrassment. He always figured it had just been a friendly gesture, if he knew it was more than that to Ray, he would have jumped on the opportunity. Things find a way to work eventually.


	8. My Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay!! I was a tad bit busy lately

Returning to the apartment together with Ryan’s hand clasped tightly to Ray’s much smaller hand, the rest of the boys tried to hide their smug little grins. Michael didn’t fight his though, why would he turn down the opportunity to mess with Ray a bit?

  
“Look at you lovebirds! Everything good now?” He teased, earning a small glare from Ray, who couldn’t help the blush on his cheeks. Ryan chuckled and wrapped an arm around him.

  
“Hey Geoff, you still want me to get Rickie involved?” Ray asked out of the blue.

  
“Is he a spy too, asshole?” Geoff retorted.

  
“No, _she_ is not. She’s a sneaky, hard to catch little shit though. Could play up a role to melt Lindsay’s heart.” He assured.

  
“Know what? Go ahead.” Geoff shook his head.

  
“Hey guys?” Jack spoke up, and everyone snapped their attention to him as he made shushing motions, listening to something clearly. The others tried to hear whatever it was as well, and as soon as he realized what he was hearing, Ryan froze.

  
“Are.. Is that meowing? It’s not from this little thing, that’s for sure..” Jack contemplated as Ryan separated from Ray.

  
“I’ve got to take care of something.. Somewhere else..” He muttered quickly before bounding down the stairs to the floor below Geoff’s apartment, taking the steps two at a time all the way down, and jogging to his personal apartment where he was greeted with a hungry kitten of his own. He scooped up the cat, a loving, goddess-like creature who he loved dearly. How she ended up being a stray born kitten, he didn’t know. But none of the others knew about her, and he had hoped to keep it that way.

  
He held the two-year-old kitten to his chest, petting her fur and speaking in high pitched baby words. He sat her down on the counter top, reaching for the bag of cat food from the cabinet and filling a small dish, filling the dish next to it with fresh water, which the cat seemed all too eager to get to. He had forgotten to feed the poor thing yesterday. The crew would just assume he was out killing someone when he said he had to go handle something, because he’s “Mad King” Ryan, what else could he possibly be doing, right? Certainly he hadn’t been sneaking away every night since he got back to tend to a cat who he’s kept a secret for almost two years now, right? He was on murder break, after all. When Ray had come to get him out of the cave, he still had the cat, he just had her hidden, and returned that night for her, tucking her away inside his apartment, where she grew up.

  
“Ryan?” He turned to look towards the door, where Gavin and Ray stood. Upon spotting the cat, Gavin went into a series of ridiculous cooing sounds over the small creature, where as Ray just held back laughter. Ryan, the most terrifying man in all of Los Santos, was hiding a fucking cat.

  
“What’s her name, Ryan?” Gavin asked while petting the cat.

  
“Princess..” Ryan muttered, his face red with embarrassment. He was well aware of how ridiculous this whole thing was. At this, Ray burst out laughing, doubling over.

  
“You named her Princess?! You’re supposed to be some scary creepy killer dude, and you’ve been keeping a fucking cat in secret, and you named her _Princess!_ ”

  
Ryan’s face was redder than the tomatoes which were growing at a little garden patch he rented. The crew didn’t know about his garden either, they just appreciated that he brought them food on occasion, whether it was just the vegetables he grew, or if he was using them to make a nice soup for one of them while they were sick, they appreciated the gesture, no questions asked.

  
Ray was starting to calm down, catching his breath, meanwhile Gavin has been fascinated by the cat the whole time, now seemingly having scooped her up and treating her like the very thing she was named after, a princess. That’s how Ryan treated her too, because she was his princess. He wouldn’t lie, he could easily see the hilarity of the situation. “Mad King” Ryan Haywood, feared by many, broke out of prison, literally known for his killings and damage he causes. And he has a cat, whom he rescued. And he named her Princess. Terrifying.

  
“She’s lovely, Ryan!” Gavin exclaimed, hugging the cat.

  
“You couldn’t have named her like.. I don’t know, Killer or something?” Ray asked, mostly recovered from his fit of laughter.

  
“Ray! Look at her! She’s no Killer, she’s daddy wittle princess!” Gavin retorted, stifling laughter as Ryan glared at him, grabbing the cat from him.

  
“You guys go back to Geoff, alright? I’ve got to take care of her for a bit.” He said as he lightly pushed Gavin out the door after setting Princess on the couch. Gavin left with a wave and a wink from Ray, who had other plans entirely, and sat next to the cat.

  
“So.. You never told me you were into pussy.” He teased with a cocky smile. Ryan sighed and plopped down next to him, Princess jumping over Ray to lay in Ryan’s lap.

  
“Nah but really though, cute cat.” There was silence between them for a minute before Ray spoke up once more, in a more quiet voice. “I wouldn’t mind if you called me princess or something..”

  
Ryan was in the middle of a drink of water, spitting it out at the comment, resulting in Princess leaping off of him and going back to her food dish.

  
“Seriously?” He asked in a mildly annoyed tone, gesturing to the water everywhere.

  
Ray looked him dead in the eye as he said his answer. “Dead serious.”

  
Ryan fought like hell, but lost in the end, letting his eyes absentmindedly roam over Ray’s body, trying to hide the fact he was chewing on his lip. Ray seemed to notice, of course he did, and scooted closer to Ryan, his hand moving slowly to his thigh, and Ryan looked like he was going to lose it at any second. Only mere inches from Ryan’s face, with full intention of leaving feather light kisses all over him until he finally broke, the door was roughly opened, slamming against the wall. Both boys jumped away from each other and turned their heads towards the door. They weren’t expecting to see her there. They were unarmed and not expecting a thing, but they weren’t confident they could have taken her on anyways, given her reputation. Meg had them unconscious in seconds, and with her girlfriend’s help, they were taken to their warehouse.

 

\---

 

  
_“I told you not to be so loud. You’ll end up getting caught and.. I don’t want them or anyone else to hurt you..”_

  
_“Lindsay I know what I’m doing. They were all kissy-face, the scare factor worked in my favor. Besides, it’s not like they can kill any of us, we’re immortal, remember?”_

  
_“I don’t want you hurt..”_


	9. Oops

Hey guys! So I realize, I have a lot of chapters left that I never posted to this story?

Will be posting within the week probably!! Yeah!

Holy fuck its been awhile!


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